Agenda item - Chair's Communications

4.1         The Chair provided the following Communications:

On behalf of the Board I would like to welcome Cllr Tony Janio.  Cllr Janio is Opposition Leader at Brighton & Hove City Council and joins the Board after Cllr Theobald stepped-down from the role.

This is the first Board meeting since Crawley Borough Council and Gatwick Airport Ltd were formally invited to be Constituent and Partner Members respectively.  I am pleased that Councillor Peter Smith, Crawley’s Chief Executive, Natalie Brahma-Pearl, and Alison Addy, Head of Community Engagement at Gatwick, are able to join us today.  The Board is looking forward to working with Crawley and Gatwick through the ratification process.

Extending the membership to Crawley and Gatwick Airport will present us with tremendous opportunities in relation to economic regeneration and growth.    It will allow us to focus on the A23/M23 growth corridor – linking Brighton, Gatwick and London.  The corridor has been identified as one of nine in England to have been at the heart of growth over the last decade and likely to maintain a pivotal role in shaping growth in the future.  This will strengthen both our voice to Government and our case for continued investment – both public and private.

This is Andy Hill’s first meeting as the new Greater Brighton Business Manager for the Board, so welcome Andy.  Andy replaces Thalia Liebig who made an invaluable contribution to the work of the Board.

It was agreed at the April Board meeting, that £40,000 would be utilised for the development of a proactive inward investment and export strategy, and that as lead partner, Brighton & Hove City Council would facilitate this process.

Work has now commenced on producing a new Economic and Inward Investment Strategy for Greater Brighton.  The tender process to appoint specialists to support this work is well under way and following shortlisting and interview, we are looking to award the contract to the successful bidder next month.

The project will comprise three distinct phases:

-       Produce an evidence report, ‘The City Region’s Economic Story & Policy Context’ - by end September 2017

-       Consultation period with stakeholders, including consultation events,  face-to-face and group interviews – October 2017-January 2018

-       Development of the Strategy – final Strategy presented for approval to the Project Board by end February 2018.

The formal invitation-only launch event for the Newhaven Enterprise Zone was held on Monday 26th June at the UTC@harbourside. The event was highly successful, with around 70 local dignitaries, businesses and partners attending, including Maria Caulfield MP. Attendees heard from a range of speakers, including Chris Rasmussen of Brightwell Dispensers (one of Newhaven’s largest employers and have recently taken on new space within the Enterprise Zone).